174 



HISTORY OF THE SEA. 



a vigorous effort in order to maintain his authority over the 

 natives, he led his two hundred and twenty men against a furi- 

 ous throng of naked, painted savages, whose numbers were de- 

 clared by the Spaniards to be no less than one hundred thousand. 

 The Indians were defeated with great slaughter, and were 

 subjected to the payment of tribute and to the indignity of 

 taxation. At this period, an officer, named Juan Aguado, sent 

 out by Ferdinand and Isabella upon the malicious representa- 

 tions of Margarit and Father Boil, to inquire into the state of 

 the colony and the conduct of Columbus, arrived in the island. 

 Columbus determined to return himself to Spain, to present in 

 person a justification of his course. A violent storm having de- 

 stroyed all -the vessels except the Nina, Columbus took the com- 

 mand of her, Aguado building a caravel for himself from the 

 wrecks of the others. They both left Isabella on the 10th of 

 March, 1496, taking with them the sick and disappointed, to 

 the number of two hundred and twenty-five, and thirty-two In- 

 dians, whom they forced to accompany them. They touched at 

 Guadeloupe for wood and water, and, after repulsing an attack 

 of Caribs, contrived to gain their confidence, and to obtain the 

 articles of which they stood in need. They left again on the 

 20th of April. After a long and painful voyage, in the course 

 of which it was proposed to throw the Indians overboard in 

 order to lessen the consumption of food, they arrived, without 

 material damage, at the port of Cadiz. Columbus wrote to the 

 king and queen, and during the month that elapsed before their 

 answer was received, allowed his beard to grow, and, disgusted 

 w T ith the world, assumed the garments and the badges of a Fran- 

 ciscan friar. He was soon summoned to Burgos, then the resi- 

 dence of the court, where Isabella, forgetting the calumnies of 

 which he had been the object and the accusations his enemies 

 had heaped upon him, loaded him with favors and kindness. 



Numerous circumstances prevented Columbus from requesting 

 the immediate equipment of another expedition. It was not 



